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With security concerns rising globally, improved video surveillance has become a priority for both public and private sectors, and an essential tool in fighting crime and protecting assets. With the increased use of surveillance digital video recorder (SDVR) systems, video surveillance now provides higher image quality, increased data storage archiving, and advanced intelligent video recognition.

Conventional surveillance systems aren’t sophisticated enough to differentiate a cat from a burglar, but with intelligent video surveillance (IVS) systems, such limitations are overcome. IVS software enables video equipment manufacturers and system integrators to create intelligent video solutions to see and process visual information as if by a human. Such video analytics systems can be programmed to track license plate numbers, recognize humans from animals, and send alerts for pre-defined parameters such as a person climbing over a fence.

The Storage Demands

Abundant storage is integral to surveillance systems since a week’s worth of recording at 1280x1024 resolution and 30 frames per second will fill up a 500 GB storage capacity. IVS systems typically perform their data analysis on the recorded data and not live stream, so sufficient storage space must be available until the data can be analyzed.

Using multiple inexpensive, low-capacity hard drives seems like a great idea, but it may prove to be more costly in the long run since it will produce more heat, and reduce system reliability. It is recommended to use higher-capacity, specialized surveillance hard drive in a safe and cool environment for the best performance.

Surveillance HDD

Recently, Seagate and Western Digital have both announced the release of their line of surveillance HDD which they have specifically engineered for surveillance and video analytics applications. Seagate offers their ST1000VX000, ST2000VX000, ST3000VX000, and ST4000VX000 models while Western Digital offers their WD10PURX, WD20PURX, WD30PURX, WD40PURX models. Both the Seagate Surveillance HDD and Western Digital Purple HDD are optimized to withstand the rigors of 24x7 multiple video streaming by offering greater storage capacity, reduced power consumption, and increased reliability. Reduced wattage (shown in table below) directly translates to decreased temperatures which lead to increased drive reliability as heat is a leading culprit for system failure. And a 3TB surveillance drive can store a massive amount of data. (roughly 42 days of high-quality video streaming @ 1290x1024 resolution, 30fps)

DESCRIPTION

Device

Drives needed for 3TB capacity

Power used per operating drive, watts

Total power used,idle drives, watts

GB per watt

3TB surveillance drive

1

8.0

8.0

375.0

500GB desktop-class drive

6+

6.19

37.14

80.78

* Comparison between a 3TB SeagateR Surveillance HDD and an average 500GB standard desktop drive.

Occasionally at TSSDR, a number of things fall in place where we think that a new build might be best to highlight new hardware. Such is the case with our receipt and significant testing with the latest and greatest from ASRock, the ASRock Z87 Intel based Extreme11/ac and AM3 based Fatal1ty 990FX Killer AM3+/AM motherboards. Their sheer design is a huge step forward as the Extreme11/ac is chock full of storage possibilities with its 6 Intel ports, dual mSATA slots, dual ThunderBolt 2.0 ports, 12 USB 3.0 ports, in addition to 16 SAS SATA ports that are tied into a LSI SAS 3008 controller and 3x24R SAS/SATA Expander that make high volume SAS/SATA connections quick and easy. Don’t believe us? Check out our testing of HGST SSD800MM SAS 12Gbps 400GB enterprise SSDs where we reached an amazing 6.1GB/s transfer speed and 850K IOPS.........Read full article

The look of both the Icy Dock ToughArmorMB996SP-6SB and MB994SP-4Son the front of each chassis is a natural fit.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

External enclosures have always been useful in turning veteran hard drives from old machines back into useful storage mediums but lately they have been making a comeback with more and more focus being placed on mobility and flexibility. Today we take a look at a new form of external enclosure with performance on its mind. The Blizzard series external enclosure from Icy Dock promises to give use the mobility we desire with not swap and plug-n-play functionality with the ability to keep our drives icy cool during operation.........Read More

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

If you’re like me you like to back up files, install every game in your Steam library just because and record your favorite TV shows to your hard drive to enjoy them on your own time. This unfortunately takes up a lot of space and more often than not means you need more and more hard drives to sate your unhealthy obsession with storage but what happens when you run out of space to put your drives or even worse, your media PC is in a small mATX case? Icy Dock looks to come to the data hogs rescue with their ToughArmor 6x2.5" SATA HDD Hot Swap Mobile Rack which promises to give us a place to put 6 2.5” drives in a single 5.25” external bay. We’ll find out if this increase in storage is worth your time.........Read More

Friday, March 07, 2014

The Icy Dock TurboSwap MB171SP-B Tray-Less 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Mobile Rack makes physical access to your HDD as easy as pop, lock, and drop. The MB171SP-B features a full-metal design that, along with passing industrial grade flammability ratings, acts as a heat sink to distribute heat evenly across the 5.25” drive bay you have it installed into. If the passive cooling of the Icy Dock TurboSwap wasn’t enough, it also features an 80mm fan integrated into the bottom of the TurboSwap with four additional screw holes to add a 120mm fan, if you deem it necessary. The MB171SP-B can fit a 3.5” full or half size HDD with a SATA I, II, or III connection and synergizes with the Icy Dock EZ Convert 2.5” to 3.5” SATA SSD / HDD Converter. The tray less design combined with hot swap capability means that you have easy access to any SATA HDD on the fly. The included barrel lock makes sure that any sensitive information is kept secure from sticky fingers and the anti-shock/vibration feet ensure a longer lifespan for HDD platters..........Read More